BFTG Bristol citeh.

[windermereROYAL]

Well that was bloody frustrating to say the least, seriously what`s the point in resting the entire first team in the cup when most of them hardly lifted a leg for the first half hour?
Thought we deserved a point just for the last 10 minute bombardment of their goal, where was it for the previous 80 minutes?
Rafael 6 didn`t do too much wrong, but some of the short passing out is scarey.
Gunter. 6 actually one of our better players in a lack lustre first half.
Morrison. 6 did ok,
Moore. 6 ditto.
Blackett. 5 cross the bloody thing.
Obita 6 constant threat down the left, especially in the last 10, when he was swinging in dangerous crosses.
Swift.5 worse game for quite some time tbh, trying to be too fancy on many occasions
Pele 7. the best of a mediocre bunch tonight. quite reminds of the the leigerwood
Ejaria. 4 , very poor, didn`t get into the game for me.
Olise 6, showed alot of good touches, promising, one for the future.
Puscas 5, hard to blame him for tonight, simply can`t play as a lone striker, but he`s come with a big reputation one way or another we have to get the best out of him.
Subs
Aluko 5 showed up quite well when he came on, not scared to run at players, had a shot headed off the line.
Baldock 5, had his work cut out against Williams
Meite. 7 put himself about, unlucky on a few occasions in that hectic last 10.

Oh and it was bloody cold.

[sandman]

Poor display, only turned up in the last 10 minutes.

Swift back to his form from the last two seasons, unfortunately. One good shot but twice he had the chance to do something with the ball on the break away and did nothing, allowing them to counter us. Awful corners from him and Obita as well.

Ovie should have buried his chance just before they scored and that changed the game. He is out of sorts at the moment.

We badly need a Joao replacement. Puscas was atrocious and Baldock was the best Brizzle defender at the end, brilliant tackle on Meite as Yaks was bearing down on goal.

Aluko should be sent on loan to China again, preferably to Wuhan Zall FC. Only kidding, wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Even if we do get a striker it is possibly too little too late. Maybe keep our powder dry until the Summer.

Roll on May.

[Torbay Royal]

Ejaria - decent first half then AWOL in the second.
Swift - poor, caught in possession too often or misplaced passes
Puscas - static and contributed nothing......replaced by Baldock (yay) who proceeded to contribute nothing either
Nobody else stood out for me, good or bad.

The goal?...........shambolic defending and lack of tracking back by Blackett.

Crowd...........low, very low.

At least dreams of the playoffs can be put back in the drawer now.

[Blue Label]

That was so poor, particularly second half.

How are City in the play offs. Bang average

[paddy20]

I put tonights defeat down to Bowen. Puscas on his own up front when we are at home. It was a very defensive and negative formation. If we don't believe we can beat teams like City when we are at home then we deserve to be where we are. Another defeat at Cardiff and we could be back in the relegation pack. When we decided (too late) too put bodies up front we looked like scoring. Bowen we should at least give it a go from the off!

[Royality creeps In]

Very disappointing against a side there for the taking.
The side we played against Cardiff would put on a better display than that lot!

Puscas needs dropping. Bloody terrible.
Swift and Ejaria, for what ever reason didn’t turn up.
Moore, Olise, Pele and latterly Meite did Ok.
The rest were pretty crap!

At least we might put a better team out next Tuesday as this season is just about a write off

[andrew1957]

I thought it was an enjoyable well contested game between two good Championship teams who pretty much cancelled each other out. The difference was they took their only chance whereas Ejaria fluffed our best one.

At this level teams huff and puff but don’t generally have enough quality. Obviously we desperately miss Jaoa up front but I equally see Bowen’s dilemma. If we are going to play a holding midfielder in Pele - who I thought was good - then you cannot play two up front or you risk getting overrun in midfield. Equally Puscas cannot play effectively up front on his own.

Might be time for plan B or C whichever it is.

We are 10 points off the play offs so think we have to play the first team in the Cup replay now.

[Royal_jimmy]

That was one of the worst home performances of the season and definitely the worst under Mark Bowen. We were casual, soft, lacking energy and lost to a pretty dreadful side and I'm really frustrated and angry. We didn't really go for it until it was too late and even then we got what we deserved.

Ratings

Rafael - 5. No fault for goal but poor decision making with kicking
Gunter - 6 solid
Moore - 5 average
Morrison - 6 played ok
Blackett - 3 poor tonight
Obita - 5 good crosses but didn't protect Richards enough
Pele - 5 average at best
Ejaria - 4 frustrating and out of form
Swift - 2 was absolutely dreadful and rightfully subbed
Olise - 4 didn't notice him much
Puscas - 3 poor but no service. He can't play in this formation. His form has faded massively without Joao

Subs
Aluko - 6 not bad
Meite - 7 was a threat
Baldock - 5 worked hard but no threat

Thought it was a really odd team that Bowen put out tonight. I blame him for the defeat and couldnt work out the game plan or formation. The poor performance looked to me like the players had no idea what they were meant to be doing.

Worse still, because of tonight, if we lose the next 2 games vs Cardiff coming up our season is basically over and the remaining games will be totally pointless.

Another note. I hate our stewards

[sandman]

Might want to edit that one a bit quick, Jimmy.

[Lower West]

As much as I like to watch him. Does Ejaria offer enough attacking threat?

Olise looks ahead of Loader by some margin.

Desperately need a presence upfront to hold the ball up.

Resorting to Aluko shows how bare the options are.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Just so disappointing, similar to the Millwall away game , Bristol City much better work rate and probably the better team on the night . Our crossing was abysmal apart from the last ten minutes when we had a go and was very unlucky with Ejaria’s miss and the two off the line . Swift can be excused a poor game, thought Pele had a great game as did Morrison. Hope our little bubble of hope and expectation hasn’t burst.

[URZZZZ]

That was a poor game of football. The style of play was terrible, non existent pressing throughout and terrible decision making on the ball. Really poor

Rafael - has nothing to do

Gunter 6 - got forward well a few times, and was unlucky with his shot cleared off the line
Morrison 6 - did OK on the whole, think he was playing them onside for the goal but it wasn’t really his fault
Moore 6 - defended well but his tempo on the ball is poor, constantly slows things down
Blackett 5 - struggled to begin with and cost us the goal not following his man. His attacking prowess has diminished since Obita has gone to LM, I don’t know why Bowen hasn’t seen this

Pele 6 - that was a Pele performance under Gomes on the ball, painfully slow but as usual did well defensively in a 1 man midfield tonight

Olise 5 - didn’t offer anything really, worked hard
Swift 3 - woeful. Wasn’t tracking his man, terrible set pieces, ruined two or three good counters, took too long on the ball etc. When he’s not on his game, we may as well turn around and give up
Ejaria 4 - the midfield doesn’t work with those two in the centre of it. It rarely has and it rarely will. 3 million is a good price for him but he can do a lot more
Obita 4 - got to go at the end of the season. Genuinely offers nothing

Puscas 4 - predictably didn’t do anything, waste of time and space as a lone striker

Baldock 4 - came into life minute 89, was as limited as Puscas the rest of time
Meite 7 - made a difference and in hindsight should have started because he was a danger in the air against Da Silva
Aluko 5 - really should have been Adam on, but he did OK, was never going to really add too much

It must be disheartening for Morrison and co coming forward just to see every set piece hit the first man. It isn’t difficult

Ejaria needs to play on the left of midfield or on the bench. It’s as simple as that. He works well with Blackett on the left side of midfield because he drags defenders away and gives him the time and space to deliver an accurate Cross. Obita and Blackett too often want to take up the same space and it simply doesn’t work

We’re still, as a team, too reliant on Swift and it isn’t healthy. When he’s off colour, there has to be a plan B. We didn’t show it until minute 88, spending most of the game pointlessly passing it around

[Royalwaster]

That was one of the worst home performances of the season and definitely the worst under Mark Bowen. We were casual, soft, lacking energy and lost to a pretty dreadful side and I'm really frustrated and angry. We didn't really go for it until it was too late and even then we got what we deserved.


Obita - 5 good crosses but didn't protect Richards enough

Yeah I felt really sorry for Richards ... no protection whatsoever.

[EverHopeful]

That was absolutely dire - back to Stam days IMO. Stupid unnecessary passing from the back that got us constantly into trouble, then a long ball to a striker who on his own is never going to be able to control and lay the ball off. I know Puscas gets loads of stick but think about it - he is a striker that needs the ball in front of him and we just don't have the players or tactics to execute this - very sad waste of his talent (and I do believe his has a lot) and also £10M wasted if we keep playing this way.

No-one came out of the game with any real credit so can't be arsed to mark individually. They can all have a 2

Season over for the league so play the U23s saturday and have a real pop on Tuesday

Going back to wine now.............

[Zip]

The first thing that surprised me was how poor the attendance was. Less than 10,000 Reading fans at the game. Woeful.
It was reflected in a subdued atmosphere and lethargic start by the team

The first half was cagey and a bit of a non event. We started the second half more brightly and Ejaria had a great chance which he struck over the bar. We then concede the softest of goals out of nothing with dreadful positioning by our defence allowing their player a simple finish. Thereafter we fell apart. This really felt like shades of the dregs of the Stam era and Clement’s time at the club. Yet another soft home defeat of which there have been far too many in recent years.

In the final few minutes we finally managed to put them under concerted pressure and would have been good value for the draw. City were bang average but defended very well. They dominated our strikers inside their penalty box winning virtually every header.

Bowen got it wrong tonight. We were crying out for Adam in the second half to give us a measure of control as both Swift and Ejaria were very poor. We also desperately lack an out and out winger which should be our focus alongside a big striker in this transfer window.

So what next? Surely the formation has to change? We need to play two upfront unless we can bring in somebody who can hold up and lay off the ball. With just two points from our last four League games we can forget about the play offs so Bowen needs to rethink his team selection for the Cup game because it has backfired. We haven’t won in the League since he decided to play our reserves v Blackpool.

Pele was for me our best player by miles tonight showing real vision with his passing and being one of the few players to win some tackles. Most of the rest were either average or poor

[EverHopeful]

That was one of the worst home performances of the season and definitely the worst under Mark Bowen. We were casual, soft, lacking energy and lost to a pretty dreadful side and I'm really frustrated and angry. We didn't really go for it until it was too late and even then we got what we deserved.


Obita - 5 good crosses but didn't protect Richards enough

Yeah I felt really sorry for Richards ... no protection whatsoever.

Yeah felt sorry for him as well - must have been really cold on subs bench.....

[Zip]

Just so disappointing, similar to the Millwall away game , Bristol City much better work rate and probably the better team on the night . Our crossing was abysmal apart from the last ten minutes when we had a go and was very unlucky with Ejaria’s miss and the two off the line . Swift can be excused a poor game, thought Pele had a great game as did Morrison. Hope our little bubble of hope and expectation hasn’t burst.

Yes their work rate was noticeable. They pressed us right from the start. We didn’t work as hard and there were a number of occasions in the first half when they had a player free either inside or outside the box. Very disappointing tonight. Two tough games coming up against a team who will be highly motivated to beat us.

[Jackson Corner]

So glad we rested our player’s for our play off push. A depressing night all round a truly dreadful game of football the ground less than half full but hardly surprising given the crap that was served up. The only difference between two average teams was they wanted it more worked harder while we just seemed to jog around and not put them under any pressure when they had the ball.

[URZZZZ]

Anyone know what’s happened to Boye?

Hasn’t set the world alight but seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth after what seemed like a decent display at Blackpool. Bit disappointed that both Loader and Aluko have jumped ahead of him in the pecking order

Given that McCleary wasn’t in the squad and is probably ahead of him, same with Loader and Bowen talking about a couple of incoming transfers, I reckon he’s done here and we’ll terminate the loan in the next couple of days

[Stranded]

The first thing that surprised me was how poor the attendance was. Less than 10,000 Reading fans at the game. Woeful.
It was reflected in a subdued atmosphere and lethargic start by the team

It is the legacy of about 5 or 6 years of nothingness bar one play-off run and the fact most can see we are not going to do anything this season barring a ridiculous run of form. Add in a bitterly cold night and you have a recipe for a small turnout.

If we'd had 4 or 5 points more, crowd may well have been healthier last night but as is we are unlikely to have any "big" home games again this year so smaller crowds will be the norm unless something significant happens on the pitch.